[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 183 (Thursday, September 21, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55269-55270]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-7931]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Highway Administration

[Docket No. FHWA-2006-25848]


Agency Information Collection Activities: Request for Comments 
for New Information Collection

AGENCY: Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The FHWA invites public comments about our intention to 
request the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval for a new 
information collection, which is summarized below under SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION. We are required to publish this notice in the Federal 
Register by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: Please submit comments by November 20, 2006.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments identified by DOT DMS Docket Number 
FHWA-2006-25848 by any of the following methods:
    <bullet> Web site: http://dms.dot.gov. Follow the instructions for 
submitting comments on the DOT electronic docket site.
    <bullet> Fax: 1-202-493-2251.
    <bullet> Mail: Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of 
Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Nassif Building, Room PL-401, 
Washington, DC 20590-0001.
    <bullet> Hand Delivery: Room PL-401 on the plaza level of the 
Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington, DC, between 9 
a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to http://dms.dot.gov at any time or to Room 401 
on the plaza level of the Nassif Building, 400 Seventh Street, SW., 
Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, 
except Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For questions concerning the 
Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design National Status Survey, please 
contact Gary Crawford, Office of Pavement Technology, HIPT-1, (202) 
366-1286, Department of Transportation, 400 Seventh Street, SW., 
Washington, DC 20590. Office hours are from 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., 
Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design National Status 
Survey.

Background

    In June 2004, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program 
(NCHRP) released the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide 
(MEPDG) for New and Rehabilitated Pavement Structures. The Federal 
Highway Administration (FHWA) organized a Design Guide Implementation 
Team (DGIT) to immediately begin the process of informing, educating, 
and assisting the FHWA field offices, State Highway Agencies (DOTs), 
Industry, and others about the new design guide. The FHWA considers 
implementation of mechanistic empirical pavement design a critical 
element in improving the National Highway System. It ties directly into 
objectives listed in The Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient 
Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) section 
1503, which supports longer life pavements through design-build 
efforts. The impacts of long-life pavements include congestion 
mitigation and improved work zone safety. The MEPDG represents a 
significant advancement in pavement design and includes the best 
available engineering theory and mechanistic principles to determine 
the structural response and predict performance over the lifetime of a 
pavement structure. The mechanistic theory is balanced with over 525 
empirical observations from the Long Term Pavement Performance database 
that represents a wide range of both material and climatic conditions. 
The use of both the mechanistic theory and a wide range of empirical 
observations make the MEPDG a robust design procedure. The MEPDG can be 
considered a 40-year step forward in pavement design. The MEPDG is a 
more theoretical and mathematical based procedure, strongly bolstered 
by fundamental engineering principles and is readily useful to 
academia, researchers, and practitioners of pavement analysis and 
design. The MEPDG provides significant potential benefits over the 
current AASHTO Guide in achieving cost-effective pavement designs and 
rehabilitation strategies. Most importantly, its user-oriented 
computational software implements an integrated analysis approach for 
predicting pavement condition over time. This analysis considers the 
complex interaction between traffic loadings, climatic conditions, 
materials and pavement structure. Implementation of the MEPDG will 
require a significant amount of time, resources, and funding. However, 
the adoption of the guide has the potential for providing a substantial 
long term savings based on the sheer magnitude of annual expenditures 
for highway pavements. In 2003, over 79 billion dollars was used for 
highway purposes; based on data published in Highway Statistics 2003 
from the FHWA Office of Highway Policy Information. Any improvement in 
the designs will have a significant implication in reducing costs to 
maintain these pavements and more than offset the resources required to 
implement the new pavement design guide.
    The DGIT has put forth a strategic plan of action to aid the 
transportation community in deploying this new technology. The DGIT is 
an integral part of an extensive outreach campaign including 
enhancement, education, and implementation strategies to promote the 
MEPDG. These activities include onsite and web-based workshops that 
have already educated more than 1,200 engineers across the U.S. in 21 
States and around the globe in Canada, Europe, China, India, Mexico, 
and Central and South America. The FHWA encourages States to evaluate 
the utility that the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Guide offers 
and to carefully implement the guidelines and recommendations. The 
long-term goal of the AASHTO Joint Technical Committee on Pavements is 
to adopt the guide as an AASHTOWare product to replace the AASHTO 1993 
design guide. Moving towards a mechanistic empirical design process 
represents a huge paradigm shift for the majority of States and will 
require a significant amount of education, training, new equipment, new 
testing requirements, and data collection. Most importantly it will 
require better communication and coordination between the designers, 
materials engineers, traffic engineers, and consultants to collect and 
maintain the data needed to optimize the pavement designs and continue 
to validate and calibrate the models in the Guide. The DGIT is focused 
on being a leader in this effort, providing education, enhancement, and 
implementation activities to the transportation community.

Guidelines and Administration

    This Survey will be a continuation of a previous informal 
assessment of State Practices in MEPDG Pavement Design

[[Page 55270]]

that was undertaken in 2004 by the AASHTO Lead States Group and will 
provide a benchmark for future surveys to which later responses may be 
assessed. The information will serve as a baseline measurement on the 
national activities related to Mechanistic Pavement Design Procedures. 
The information will be used by FHWA to develop a national program to 
aid State DOTs in the implementation efforts and to guide research 
efforts. The information has been requested by the AASHTO Lead States 
Group in order to be better able to address areas of need. The 
information will be used in order to disseminate information and to 
avoid the duplication of implementation efforts. The information will 
also be helpful to the AASHTO through the process of assessing the 
procedure as an official national pavement design procedure. 
Information concerning national activities in MEPDG will be very useful 
in aiding this governing body in the balloting process. The information 
will aid in guiding the direction of research and implementation 
efforts by both the FHWA and State DOTs. The results of the survey will 
be disseminated by the FHWA and the Lead States Group to interested 
parties throughout the Nation. Stakeholders in the MEPDG will be able 
to assess the adequacy of the implementation efforts over time. This 
information will be collected under a contract through the Office of 
Pavement Technology. The survey will be administered through electronic 
media in order to reduce the burden of the responders.

Information Proposed for Collection

    The information collected will asses the current state of pavement 
design and capture current activities associated with the 
implementation of mechanistic design procedures throughout the Nation. 
This information can be categorized into four major areas.
    1. Implementation Plan for Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design. 
This information includes current status of pavement design and 
implementation strategies included in the State DOT activities. This 
includes information about the major areas of materials 
characterization and traffic collection.
    2. Calibration Plan for Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design. This 
information details the SHA activities associated with calibration of 
the mechanistic pavement design procedure. Calibration activities at 
the State and regional level are of particular interest for guiding 
research activities and avoiding duplication of efforts.
    3. Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design: Methodology and 
Partnering. This information includes the intended use of the 
mechanistic pavement design procedure for other applications and the 
possible use by other transportation agencies in a State. The 
mechanistic pavement design procedure has the potential to be used in 
coordination with innovative contracting techniques and other pavement 
analysis and materials acceptance programs.
    4. Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design: Training and 
Communication. This is information outlining the training activities 
anticipated or already conducted in relation to the mechanistic 
pavement design procedure. The information also includes anticipated 
costs associated with implementation activities.

Burden Hours for Information Collection

    Frequency: Bi-Annual.
    Respondents: The Pavement Design Engineer in each State DOT, Puerto 
Rico, and the District of Columbia; for a total of 52.
    Estimated Average Burden per response: Assuming 1 respondent per 
State plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia and 1 hr to respond 
to the survey, the total will be approximately 52 burden hours. FHWA is 
seeking a 3-year approval and plan on conducting the survey in the 
first and third year of the approval time period. The estimated annual 
burden is 35 hours.
    Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspect of 
this information collection, including: (1) Whether the proposed 
collection is necessary for the FHWA's performance; (2) the accuracy of 
the estimated burdens; (3) ways for the FHWA to enhance the quality, 
usefulness, and clarity of the collected information; and (4) ways that 
the burden could be minimized, including the use of electronic 
technology, without reducing the quality of the collected information. 
The agency will summarize and/or include your comments in the request 
for OMB's clearance of this information collection.

    Authority: The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995; 44 U.S.C. 
Chapter 35, as amended; and 49 CFR 1.48.

    Issued on: September 15, 2006.
James R. Kabel,
Chief, Management Programs and Analysis Division.
[FR Doc. 06-7931 Filed 9-20-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-22-P